Ron Smith, a mainstay of British comics since the late 1940s and the most prolific Judge Dredd artist of the late 1970s/early 1980s, has passed away at the age of 94.

Smith took on the character for the first time in 2000 A.D. Prog 104 (2000 A.D. called issues "progs" as part of its futuristic style) in 1979 and drew the character on and off until 1994.

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Smith was born in 1924 in Bournemouth, England and flew Spitfires during World War II. Following the war, he found work in animation at first before transitioning into comic book work by the end of the decade for Amalgamated Press.

He moved to D. C. Thomson & Co., the popular publisher of iconic British weekly comics like Beano and The Dandy. He worked for D.C. Thomson from 1951-1972, drawing comic book stories in a number of different genres for Thomson's various comic book magazines, including westerns.

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Smith went freelance in 1972 and by the end of the decade, he became one of the artists on the Judge Dredd feature in 2000 A.D.

Smith helped draw some of the most popular Dredd story arcs of the era, including "The Judge Child" (along with Mike McMahon and Brian Bolland).

Smith is perhaps best known among Dredd fans for co-creating the grotesque Otto Sump...

Smith continued working on Dredd until 1994.

Smith also notably worked on the Judge Dredd comic strip that ran in The Daily Star for almost two decades...

(Smith drew the early years of the strip).

Smith retired from comics in the late 1990s.